Loose Ends
by wbelisabeth
Summary: Callie's with someone new when her ex returns.


Author: wbelisabeth

Summary: Callie is with someone else when her ex comes back into town.

Type: Drabble. Nothing really meaningful.

Disclaimer: Grey's Anatomy is not mine, I do not own any of the characters, I am not making any money.

AN : I don't know if this worked how I wanted it to, but the first POV came to me when I was listening 'Bring Me Some Water' sung by Melissa Etheridge. Then it went from there.

AN 2: There are 3 points of view, all of which are different people.

AN 3:There is a reference to Lilly915s 'Valentine's Surprise', it is marked with *. My fic not in the same world as that fic, but I can't help but agree with the line that I have borrowed. I love the series and recommend you read it!

Enjoy.

POV 1

Joe's bar is full, the music is loud and the bar is crowded. But I can't help but see the two women dancing on the small dance floor. They were transfixed and I am numb. I shouldn't be here, but I just sit and watch, chewing my straw as I seemed to have started to try and rid me of my anxiety. It is obvious to me that she has moved on. I can t help but be disappointed, I thought that I could come back and right old wrongs. It seems I am wrong again. I used to be right all the time, but now... Now all I can see is the way she moves so well to the music, I can't help but remember what it felt like when her body was against mine. I laugh at the women next to her. Yet another blonde? I'm definitely noticing a pattern here Calliope Torres. She laughs and whispers something to the woman she's dancing with. Her partner seems to just laugh and gets painfully closer. I want to get between them and shout "MINE!" but I lost the right. I wasn't going to come back. I wasn't going to let myself come back into her world, but a sick child is hard to refuse. Her lips trace her dance partners jaw up to her ear and then, while I can't hear her I can feel her as she whispers seductively. My heart breaks again. That was me once. She lets her hand wander from her partner's hair, down her shoulder and along her arm, and tangles her own fingers in that of her partners. Maybe I'm imagining it, maybe not, but I see a trail of goosebumps where her fingertips had brushed. I was hoping that she was just there; doing the rounds, but with every moment the intimacy between the two becomes clearer and clearer. Suddenly I hear someone clearing their throat behind me, and I know instantly who it is.

"You're back?" He asks gruffly.

"Just one case Mark. There s a young girl who needs my help, her parents requested me. This isn t about anything else."

"Are you going to talk to her?"

"I was. Until I saw... We were..." I sigh "And now, now she's dancing and looking happy."

"Don't mess with this, with her. She is happy."

"_I_ fixed her."

"But then you stopped. When it ended, she went back to the way she had been, in fact, she was far more messed up than before. You left her far more broken than anyone before. She was just broken again." Moments lapse and I think he's going to turn back into the same old Mark Sloan and make an inappropriate joke, but then just to throw me back off balance, he adds "I would like you to leave here, before she sees you."

"Fine. I don't need to torture myself like this. I'll go, but I'll be at the hospital tomorrow and I won't be avoiding her."

What the hell had gotten into Mark Sloane? He was just one reason in a long list of reasons why we didn t work. She had put him before me. She hadn't even thought of me when she offered... Stop. I can't help it, the pain returns. All I want to do is go back to my hotel room and drink all the vodka my mini-bar had to offer, but since I have a ground-breaking surgery tomorrow I'm going to go for the next best thing. An exhausting run and then a crawl back to my hotel room to eat lots and lots of Ben and Jerry's. It s the only true cure of heartache.

**POV 2**

"I need to talk to you." Mark approaches me, but I can't help it, but I am unable to focus on him. I am looking for her everywhere, she left early this morning and I wanted to wish her good morning. I know I'm whipped, I know, I know, I know! But there is something about her, something so incredibly sexy. She s a complete departure for me, well no, not complete. She is blonde after all. "I need to tell you something. She's back, in the hospital." Hmmm I wonder who he's talking about? There is something about that tone he's using... I wonder if she's in surgery, maybe that s why I can't find her. It looks to be a fairly quiet board well isn't that ominous? It's-

Oh. Crap.

"Oh crap." It was a bad omen after all.

"Yeah, look I saw her last night. She s here for some kids surgery..." Again his voice fades out as I fail to concentrate. There is a name I didn't think I would ever see or hear again, ok, so maybe I was hoping to never hear or see it. She's. Back. I can't breathe. Just. Breath. Calliope. In. Out. In. Out. In...ok. Better. I loved that woman. I loved her, the best I could and she still left. But she's here. In this hospital. Working on a kid. Saving a child's life. I have spent so much time wrapped up in the pain of her. I spent hours on my couch, in my bed, at Joe's, upset. Heartbroken. Wishing that she would return to my arms and now, now all I can wish is that she would go back from where she came. I have moved on. I am whole again. She broke me, just like the others did. She can't just come back and. No. I'm presuming too much. She's here for a surgery and then she'll leave. It wouldn t be about me, it couldn't be. It was about her patient. She cared about her patients. Like it or not, she cared more than most would ever know, it wasn't about me. "Uh Callie? If you want to avoid, she's..." Mark's voice snaps me back to reality.

It's then that I look up and see those beautiful blue eyes that I used to long for. That I prayed about, the eyes I asked God to bring back to me. But in this moment? In this moment, they are cold and giving me nothing. I want to speak, to make small talk, to pretend that she didn't shatter the life that we had started to forge together. But there are no words. "Cal, do you want me to-" I am about to nod for him to get rid of her, but then, then, all my attention is taken up by what I see in the corner of my eye, _she_ walks around the corner and the room lights up. I can feel a smile involuntarily cross my face. Her hair glitters and her own smile visible. She walks over to me with a smirk, and doesn't notice her competition. I am suddenly relaxed and breath her in as she comes closer, almost forgetting the circumstances.

"Hey, do you know anything about Karev taking over my heart surgery? I was looking forward to working with Teddy again, and it seems that we were both taken off the case. Hmm, althoooough now I have an hour free, we could make use of one of the on-" I have to cut her off before the conversation becomes awkward... Ok so, more awkward. I can see Mark sneaking away. Probably a very smart thing. Run! Run from the lesbian drama!

"I'd like you to meet an old colleague of mine, um someone I think you have heard of... uh" So, we really haven't talked about it but, she was all like 'the talk is good' and crap, so she knows, she heard the talk, she has to know

"Calliope, are you ok?" She notices my anxiety, my sweet beautiful girlfriend is looking at me with so much compassion and I realise all the reasons I have to smile. Her hair has those two little side plait things that I love, her eyes are full of concern, and her lips look like heaven to me right now, I feel like the room just got a little warmer. Focus Calliope. Focus.

"You let her call you Calliope?" Cruella DeVille speaks, and with that one comment I know she has not changed a bit, still acting tough, still cynical, still closed. I look over to the woman who broke my heart, and can't help but feel compassion. I used to be closed off. I used to have all these defense mechanisms to keep the distance, until I learnt that it was ok to just be happy. I turn to my girlfriend who has a quizzical expression, which just so happens to be extraordinarily cute and the room gets even warmer, but I have to complete this introduction before someone else does.

"Arizona this, this is Erica Hahn. Erica Hahn, this is my girlfriend Dr. Arizona Robbins"

"I uh..." Arizona makes that cute confused face and for a second it seems like everything is ok until realization dawns and her face becomes neutral. I don't think I have ever seen her neutral. She seems to wear each emotion on her face freely, but not in this second. This second I am concerned.

And it is then that the thought comes to me that the meeting of the two women might have just caused a rip in the time/space continuum I once recall Bailey saying that if they were both in the same room they would cancel each other out* it may be just be close to that. Arizona is the first to speak.

"Dr Hahn, it's such a pleasure to meet you." She leans forward to offer her hand and Erica accepts the gesture, just as they are releasing contact, Arizona starts to speak again "So you've stolen my patient you've not got plans to steal anything else off me while you're here, I hope?" She smiles sweetly and glances over at me. I nearly choke. Erica looks like a deer in headlights. In the year or so we ve been together, I know that Arizona is forward but that was well, blunt to say the least, with a side of bitch. Not to mention HOT.

"Mrs Harris asked me here, I am here for the surgery and then I'll be leaving." Erica manages to look uncomfortable enough for Arizona to smile.

"Oh ok, well, good luck. Nikki is a fighter and she's been through a lot so far." She turns to me and says "Play nice." She kisses my cheek, I think to mark her territory, and then whispers in my ear "But not too nice now." The feeling of her warm breath clouds my head and all I can think of as she glides away on her heely's is that were it not for Erica, we would be on our way to an on-call room somewhere.

"Well that was interesting. I saw you both dancing last night, and I have to say, she s definitely not how I pictured her." Her voice is even mixed with a little surprise, but then she adds "Well isn't she delightful."

"You do not get to inflict your sarcasm on her." Ok so that came off angrier than I thought.

"Sorry." She grimaces and glances at her shoes for a moment. "I have missed you."

"I did miss you, I missed you for what seemed to be the longest time, but then then, I realized what I was missing. You left me, because _I_ was scared. You're whole personality is about putting up walls and hiding you, being scared. If it were really about the heart, if it was really about Izzie Stevens we would still have been friends but we aren't. So now I'm in a committed, loving and adult relationship... And you are off at Mass Gen or John Hopkins or wherever, trying to beat Preston Burke." It is in this moment that I realize that I have little to say to Erica, except to reiterate Arizona. "Good Luck in surgery, Nikki really has been through a lot and we really would like her to see her birthday next week."

**POV 3**

Ok, so Karev I can handle... except for my brick throwing phase. But that only lasted, what? A week. But this? This is her first. Her only other... I can't help but have my stomach in a knot. I love her and she loves me but I can't help it to want to go down there and put my dirty playground fighting skills into action against Hahn. She s a lot prettier than I thought she'd be. Most people speak fairly negatively about her personally, so I think I got this idea that she was totally ugly, ok, ok, so maybe I imagined her as a monster. I guess that's the peds in me. She's the evil witch, she's the bad guy in my story. In my story Calliope is the Sleeping Beauty, the Belle, the Cinderella ok so I totally watch too much Disney, but my point is that Calliope was left broken, and I fixed her. It's what I do. Fix people. But she's different, this time me fixing someone was different, because, this time I patched her up with part of me. I'm invested and I can't uninvest myself. I don't think she wants me to univest but.. argh. I sigh and try to get more comfortable on this stupid on-call bed. They should so have more comfortable beds. As surgeons our jobs are hard enough as is it without having crappy beds to try and catch up sleep with. Although, if Callie was here I wouldn't be trying to catch up on sleep. But then, this bed would still be uncomfortable. I let out another sigh.

I can't believe Erica came back. I don't want her here, she's tall and pretty and not at all unpleasant to look at and I can't help but wish I was taller. This time I go for the extra heavy sigh. She looks so strong, but then again she looks hardened too. I mean I would probably look hardened and pissed off if I didn t have Calliope anymore but-

"You need to stop thinking there Ari." Her voice is low and soft and she sounds like she's smiling and I feel her arms wrap around me and I relax instantly. I hadn't even heard her come in. I was so focused on the Erica-hate. She smells so good. I'm still facing the wall but know she's smiling as she fits her head in the crook of my neck. I could lie like this forever. I know that I will never want to uninvest in Calliope Torres as long as I live. "You know I love you right?" It sounds like she is using her 'this is going to hurt' tone. The same one she used when she told me about her offer to look after Sloan Mk III. This is making me nervous.

"Yes?" She feels my nerves I m sure because suddenly she tightens her arms around my waist.

"I don't love you because you fixed me. I mean, I am grateful for it, but I love you because we just... fit." She doesn't even have to explain. I know what she means because we do fit and I let out the breath that I've been holding. "Erica is going back home straight after the surgery. She's not here for me, or if she was, she isn't anymore." I can't help but feel relief. I mean what if she s made a play at my girl? What if Calliope was tempted to go back? What if-

"Ari you re doing it again" She laughs into my back.

"Oh, right sorry." I cringe.

"I did love Erica. I did, but as a friend. Really she reserved too much of herself. She was frightened of a lot of things. She was afraid of being second place, to anyone, for anything. I didn t know her enough to have fallen in love with her. She was a good friend, who helped me find you. And I will be grateful for her, because if not for her, I might have never admitted how I thought the peds surgeon with a butterfly scrub cap was really hot. I might not have had the chance to feel as happy as I am now. So I don't love her, but I am grateful for her." As she spoke I felt the vibration from her voice through my back, while her words were calming, the feel of her wrapped around me, talking to me soft and low; that was the really calmed me. I have her, and she has me and we fit and I need to stop being concerned over her first and focus on me being her last.

"I love you and you are here and that is all that matters."


End file.
